Don’t you dare criticize him for what he said. Honestly, you’re no different. You swear you believe in God, but when life hits the fan, when it’s go‑time, when truth shows up loud, you fold like Peter did: big talk, soft spine, a real live phony wuss.

Right Answer. Wrong Approach.

Sure, he spit the right answer. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” But Jesus had no sooner than affirmed Peter, told him that's the kind of truth that shakes the Kingdom of Heaven, when Peter blew it.

Jesus told the twelve not to tell anyone he was the Messiah. It sounds wild,  counterproductive that the Savior of the World would not want his inner circle to broadcast his purpose, but Jesus knew his boys were confused. Peter, along with the others, was self-deluded about what Messiah meant. They had this whole fantasy Messiah in their heads, some superhero king who’d stomp Rome out and make Israel shine again. No way should Jesus fall victim to the religious leaders who wanted him dead. No way he should die. (Be raised on the third day? By then Peter’s stuffed ears had quit listening, shut down like bad Wi‑Fi)

And that’s the problem. All of them, including Peter, and all of us, want God to be their kind of God. The God that rides for our side. The God who fixes what we hate. The kind of God that rights all that is wrong according to how they, you, and I see it. The Jews had suffered too many centuries under occupation by foreign, pagan rule. It was time for a Messiah to come out swinging. A Messiah should take care of that, not take on abuse and suffering and Heaven forbid, die! Peter “corrected” him: “This will never happen to you.”

That’s right. Messiahs and Saviors should take care of things, make our lives happy and safe. Meanwhile, look around. Same mess today. Notice how many wars are going on? Whole countries still invading and occupying other lands, forcing kids and grandparents to pick up weapons or get wiped out, snatching children from families and brainwashing them against their own people. And back home we’ve got racially charged mass shootings taking out innocent folks like it’s some sick routine. We wonder once again what God is going to do about it. Now is the time to say, God, this is enough. Do something! End this mess. Get this gone!

Staring Down the Enemy

Jesus wasn’t even trying to end Rome. He was trying to end Satan. That’s what he called Peter, the only human whom Jesus called out as Satan. Satan was Jesus’ antithesis, adversary, the spiritual equivalent of all that would destroy what the Kingdom of Heaven was meant to be. Peter wasn’t possessed, just thinking small, thinking human, thinking survival and comfort instead of Kingdom, street‑level, not God‑level. And honestly, it didn’t make sense to them. They were hurting. They wanted freedom, not philosophy. But Jesus was saying how even in suffering, God’s got a plan you can’t see yet. Your logic isn’t God’s logic, “seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” Peter’s words to back away from the kind of Messiah Jesus intended to be were a “dangerous trap”.

But wait a blessed minute here! This doesn’t make sense. These people were hurting, and the Hebrew scripture had promised a Messiah, a David-like king who would rescue the people. What were the Chosen People chosen for if they had to succumb to this tyranny all the time?

You mean even in the face of suffering, God, you have another plan, a way of bringing about a peace for us we cannot see right now? So what makes sense from our assessment of the situation isn’t how you see it?

Losing is Finding

Jesus gives it to them, and us, in blunt and brutal terms:

“If you want to be my follower, put aside your selfish ambition,

 shoulder your cross, and follow me.”

“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it.”

“If you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”

Good Lord, where does that leave us!

With bold-faced truth. Our century is not the first which has been subjected to blaring cacophonies telling us what will satisfy our lives. The lure of wealth, security, status are real, but even more so is the confidence that our way is the right way, we know how to fix things, and we have the only way to find satisfaction and meaning. Then again, if it worked, why are people still empty, scared, angry, and reaching for more, still sit in the tension of fearing what seems unknowable?

Jesus knew we were built for something deeper: soul stuff. We were made for something better, beautiful, fragile, vulnerable. Each person is more than a complex wiring of cells forming body, brain, thought and emotion. When enveloped together there is a soul which appeals to love, truth, beauty, justice, the essential and holy qualities of God.

“How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Loss is Gain

The question hit the disciples, and it hits us, beyond time into an eternal now. It challenged the twelve to relinquish their limited understanding of who Jesus was and how they were to live out his mission. Even with all our tech, power, and progress, we still get dropped to our knees by tyrants, warmongers, racists, and anybody hungry for control using violence and hate. We sit where the disciples sat, waiting and watching for what God will do and what we are asked to do, what cross we are asked to carry, how we are to sacrifice the best of ourselves for the best of God’s design in this time in which we live, ugly and mean as it is.

It’s been said that Peter, if nothing else, is the proof and epitome of God’s commitment to continually call and love no matter how often he got things wrong. And if nothing else, Peter has tons of company in that regard. Plenty of us, despite both our own honest (ok, sometimes selfish) but misguided intentions, frustrate the will of God and mission of Jesus Christ. Yet, despite both our best and worst efforts, Jesus still pulls us in, still tells us the truth: real life is losing the fake one we keep trying to protect for the sake of the true meaning in our souls found in a shouldered cross.

Matthew 16:21-28

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